Though a decade-long fund-raising campaign that ends next year has more than doubled the flow of private money pouring into UCLA, officials say a trend of shrinking government funding of public universities means UCLA will depend even more on private donations in years to come.
Campaign UCLA, launched publicly in May 1997, reached its target earlier this year of raising $2.4 billion for campus entities including professional schools, athletics and the library. University charts show the average annual private donations to UCLA stand at $250 million, up from $100 million prior to the current fund-raising effort.
The campaign will last through Dec. 31, 2005, and Rhea Turteltaub, assistant vice chancellor for development, said the money goes toward everything from research to faculty chair endowments. While the fund-raising push has achieved success beyond initial ambitions, the university now needs to narrow its focus, she added.
Chancellor Albert Carnesale said in a meeting with the Daily Bruin this month that as California continues to suffer budget woes, UCLA must concentrate on strengthening its floundering ability to compete with private universities in recruiting graduate students, faculty and researchers.
Turteltaub said this “competitiveness gap” was the principal motivation behind creating the Initiative to Ensure Academic Excellence, a UCLA fund-raising effort started this spring to raise $250 million over the next five years, and “to provide a laser sharp focus on the needs of students and faculty.”
Tracie Christensen, executive director of development for the UCLA College, said departments partaking in UCLA-wide campaigns benefit by gaining visibility with more donors.
Measures like privately funded student scholarships help compensate for increased student fees, but the majority of money the campaign raises does not directly fill gaps left by slashed government funding, she added.
“Some people might see that as a disadvantage, but we don’t raise money to bridge the deficit gap. ... Philanthropy is for that margin of excellence,” she said.
The renovation of Glorya Kaufman Hall, a dance building dedicated this year, mirrors the idea that private donations should contribute more toward excellence than to sustenance, said Laura Parker, School of Arts and Architecture assistant dean.
The campaign will give the school of arts “world class, state-of-the-art facilities that we never would have had without private philanthropy – never in a million years,” Parker said.
Now that funding for new buildings has been hammered out, the School of Arts and Architecture will reevaluate its Campaign UCLA goals for the coming year, Parker said. Private money will likely work to balance lacks in public funding, she added.
“Student scholarships, faculty support and discretionary funding are three top priorities,” she said. “And that’s desperately needed because of budget cuts.”